This year, the Durga Puja Pandals in Uttar Pradesh will highlight issues related to crime against women. UP, in the past one year, has been making news for all the wrong reasons, crime against women being one of them.
Bondhu Mahal, a social organisation, which is preparing its first Durga Puja pandal this year has chosen the girl child as its main theme.
“We will be asking visitors to sign a pledge that they will protect the girl child and a copy of this pledge will be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office and the chief minister’s office,” said Bondhu Mahal president Jayanto Pramanik.
He further said that the idea was to create awareness among people about the urgent need for security of women and this will be linked to Puja celebrations.
Elaborating on the issue, he said, “As Maa Durga is a woman so we decided to highlight the issue of save the girl child and we will be taking some help from women’s organisations too.”
The Navdurga Samiti in Barabanki, on the other hand, will focus on acid attack victims in its Puja pandal. The samiti will be holding a debate on the demand for ban on sale of acid and the event will be judged by acid attack survivors Kavita and Meena Soni.
Mr T.K. Roy, convenor of the samiti, said that banners calling for awareness on crime against women will be put up and people, especially, men will be asked to be sensitive towards the victims.
“Most of the Puja pandals are taking up the issue and there has been no prior decision about this. It is just that crime against women has been highlighted in Uttar Pradesh everyone feels strongly about this,” he said.